West Indies head coach Phil Simmons was open about the lack of clarity offered by certain West Indian players on their availability, claiming that they pick and choose when to play for the national side.
The T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia is less than two months away, and the West Indies, the only team to lift two titles, is far from being in a position to narrow down their best squad for the marquee event, with a number of players being unavailable for selection.
Without knowing the players that are available, the selection committee will have a hard time deciding on a set squad for the ICC event.
Andre Russell has made himself unavailable. Oshane Thomas and Evin Lewis haven’t attended the fitness tests while Sunil Narine’s position is unclear.
Simmons expressed his disappointment that the T20 players would not be participating in the next T20 series against New Zealand. According to a quotation from ESPN Cricinfo, the 59-year-old man said:
“It hurts. There’s no other way to put it. But what can you do? I don’t think that I should be begging people to play for their countries. I think if you want to represent West Indies, you will make yourself available.”
“Life has changed, in that people have the opportunities to go different places and if they choose that over West Indies, that’s just how it is,” Simmons said.
Phil Simmons on tinkering with the batting order against New Zealand
Ahead of the 3-match T20I series against the Kiwis, Simmons reckoned there might be changes in the batting lineup that lost the 5-match series against India 1-4.
“So far we have been experimenting; as we get to the end of these games, we’re going to have a better idea how we want them to be put in the order and how we want them to go in.”
“And we tend to judge it by overs and the situation. So in each game, it could be different. Shimron could bat higher and Pooran could bat lower. It just depends on the game, the situation in the game,” Simmons added.
The first T20I between West Indies and New Zealand takes place on August 10.